NASCAR appreciated Tyler Reddick not shedding debris around Sonoma Raceway when he suffered a flat tire late in Sunday’s race, but it still had to enforce the rule book.
The left-front tire on Reddick’s 23XI Racing Toyota went down coming off Turn 11 with 14 laps to go. It was an inopportune time for the issue as Reddick has already passed pit road and would have had to limp his wounded car back around the 1.99-mile course.
Instead, Reddick hooked a right and drove across the ‘island’, which is the center section between the straightaway coming to Turn 11 and the frontstretch. NASCAR penalized Reddick for cutting the course and made him serve a pass-through penalty.
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“Obviously, it changes it time and distance of the race,” NASCAR Cup Series director Brad Moran told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday. “So yes, he did go down pit road and got his tires changed, but came back well ahead of where he would have. We appreciate the fact he didn’t tear stuff up down the racetrack, but unfortunately, we have rules that you cannot shortcut the course, and that was a shortcut back to pit road. He saved about 90% of the racetrack.
“We reviewed it and made sure we were on the same page, but under different circumstances, that could have looked a lot worse. It was heads-up driving by Tyler to do what he did; he probably gained some time even in doing that with the stop and the drive-through. Unfortunately, that one’s in the rule (book), and we would have had to enforce that, and after reviewing that, we made that call.”
Reddick finished 33rd in the Toyota / Save Mart 350. He was one lap off the pace at the finish.
In explaining his move, Reddick told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio earlier in the week that NASCAR officials had told his team he was penalized for missing the commitment line to pit road. Either way, Reddick doesn’t regret the move.
“I thought morally it was the right thing to do,” Reddick said. “I didn’t know who was leading at the time, but I knew there was no way I would have made it around that racetrack had I gone the full course. By the time I got to pit road, I would have gotten in the way of the leaders, and it would have been a real mess.
“I’d do it again, even if I get penalized or penalized worse. I’m not going to ruin someone’s race; especially as it turned out being (Toyota teammate) Martin Truex’s day. I’m really glad we didn’t bring the caution out there by going around the racetrack and potentially changing the outcome for those guys.”